The invention relates generally to heating apparatus and in particular to cooking adapted to a wood-burning heating apparatus.
Heat from burning fuel is, of course, a traditional medium for cooking food, and cooking over an open fire is undoubtedly the earliest method of cooking. Although ovens and broilers are used for certain kinds of cooking, much cooking is still done atop open sources of heat such as gas or electric ranges.
Open cooking produces a certain amount of cooking odor and gaseous and solid by-products, that can rise to an annoying and uncomfortable level. Many gas and electric stoves are accompanied by overhead hoods for drawing up and exhausting such products. Some are equipped with passages built into the surface of the stove, with fans for drawing cooking by-products down into the stove openings and exhausting them.
The enclosed fire in a wood burning stove transmits enough heat to the frame of the stove so that a stove surface, usually the top, can also be used as a source of heat for cooking. Cooking on top of a wood stove, however, also produces the cooking odors and other gaseous and solid cooking by-products mentioned above.
A principal object of the invention is to provide a method and apparatus for cooking in conjunction with solid fuel burning stoves like the one described hereinafter, namely, one with a top loading capability which requires that a downdraft through the top loading aperture be maintained if wood is loaded while the fire is lit.
Further objects of the invention are to provide an apparatus and a method for using a wood burning stove for cooking while maintaining the room free of cooking odors and, in the case of the apparatus, which is easy to use and inexpensive to manufacture.